Versions of academic papers online - the experience of authors and readers

Transcription

1 Versions of academic papers online - the experience of authors and readers Thank you for your interest in the VERSIONS Project survey on writing, disseminating and accessing academic research papers. This is one of two surveys being conducted by the VERSIONS Project. If you are not a researcher or student but have another interest in the question of version identification, please complete our survey for providers and other interested parties at The VERSIONS Project is led by the London School of Economics and Political Science, with the Nereus consortium of European research libraries in economics as associate partners. The project is funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). VERSIONS Project ( Nereus Consortium ( The London School of Economics (UK) Tilburg University (NL) Erasmus University of Rotterdam (NL) German National Library of Economics (D) Sciences Po (F) Université Libre de Bruxelles (B) University College Dublin (IRL) UCL (University College London) (UK) University of Oxford (UK) The University of Warwick (UK) Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (B) Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration (A) Maastricht University (NL) Carlos III de Madrid (ES) Charles University CERGE-EI (CZ) Université Toulouse 1 Sciences Sociales (F) Joint Information Systems Committee -- Digital Repositories Programme ( Introduction An academic research paper evolves during its development from idea to published article. As a result numerous versions of the same paper are produced by the author. The ease with which papers can be created and distributed in digital form has led to multiple versions being available online. It can be difficult to establish the status of these online papers, or the relationships between available versions. We hope to collect valuable information from you about: versions of your own academic papers that you produce as research outputs how you manage your own papers while revising your work how you disseminate full text copies of your work online your experience of finding and identifying other researchers' papers

2 About you (Page 1 of 8) Your role and subject area 1. Which of the following best describes your role? Professor Lecturer / Associate Professor Post doctoral research staff Student (PhD or other research degree) Contract / freelance researcher Not an active researcher If you are not active in research or teaching, please consider completing our survey for providers and other interested parties at which may be more relevant to you. 2. Do you have any of the following responsibilities? (select all that apply) Head of department or research unit Dean or head of university research Teacher Journal editor Working paper series editor Officer of learned society or research association Other (please specify): 3. Which subject discipline are you engaged in? [More information: What is a UOA? These are Units of Assessment as used in the Research Assessment Exercise in the United Kingdom. See for further details.] Economics and Econometrics (UOA 34) Accounting and Finance (UOA 35) Business and Management Studies (UOA 36) Other We are happy to receive responses from all disciplines, but you may find that some of the questions are targeted specifically towards economists.

3 You as an author (Page 2 of 8) Your research outputs 4. Thinking about a current or recent typical research project, which of the following do you expect / hope to produce as output(s) from that research? (select all that apply) Conference paper Conference / workshop / seminar presentation Working / discussion paper (institutional working paper series with no quality control) Working / discussion paper (institutional working paper series with quality control) Working paper (membership working paper series such as NBER, CEPR, IZA) Journal article in refereed journal Journal article in unrefereed journal Report for funding body Book chapter Book Dataset Thesis Other (please specify): 5. Thinking about revisions you make to your research outputs during their preparation, which revisions do you personally keep / plan to keep stored in electronic form (e.g. on your computer or network drive) at the end of the process? Keep all revisions Keep major revisions but not all Keep the latest revision that I worked on only Do not keep a personal copy Do not produce research outputs Other (please specify):

4 You as an author - papers produced for refereed academic journals (Page 3 of 8) In the following questions we focus on your academic papers, intended for publication in refereed academic journals, and the process of writing, revising and storing them. Writing papers for submission to refereed journals 6. How many papers intended for publication in refereed academic journals have you produced in the past two years? (Optional) More than I expect to produce academic papers in the near future 0 I am unlikely to produce academic papers Revising and storing your academic papers intended for refereed journals Final author version, in the following questions, relates to the version produced by yourself / co-authors, as agreed with the journal following referee comments. 7. Which of the following versions of a paper, that you have written for publication in a refereed journal, would you personally keep (e.g. on your own computer or network drive)? a) Early draft version(s) (before circulation to anyone, other than co-authors) b) Draft version circulated to colleagues or peers for feedback before submitting to a journal c) Version submitted to a journal for peer review d) Final author version produced by yourself/co-authors agreed with the journal, following referee comments e) Version produced by publisher Proof copy f) Version produced by publisher Final published version (often in PDF format as it appears in the journal itself Keep permanently Keep until updated version produced (if applicable) Do not produce/have this version Don t know Don t produce papers

5 8. Thinking about storing your academic papers in the long term and focussing on final author versions of your papers, do you have an easily accessible copy of these among your personal files (electronic or paper)? All Most Some None Don t produce If you did not answer All, please provide your reasons. (Optional) (select all that apply) I do not have electronic copies before a certain date I do not have copies produced while I was at a previous university / institution I do not have copies of papers that I co-authored, the principal / lead investigator has this version Changes to the manuscript are made iteratively between myself and the publisher in the later stages so I would have to assemble such a version Loss or damage to my computer Papers are stored electronically but would be difficult to retrieve from various servers Loss or damage to paper files I have discarded print copies of older papers before a certain date and do not have electronic versions Other (please specify): 9. Are you satisfied with the way in which you organise revisions and different versions of your own work, on your own computer or storage medium? [More information: For example, some researchers keep all files on a specific research area in a folder by research topic, subdivided by document types such as conference paper, journal article submissions etc. Others use an incremental numbering system in the filename to denote revisions to documents. Others keep everything and simply search by the date and time that the documents are saved.] Yes No, not completely Don t produce research outputs a. If Yes, please describe the system that you use and how it helps you to organise your files. (Optional)

6 b. If No, not completely, please describe some of the difficulties that you face when organising your own revisions of documents. (Optional) Responsibility for secure storage of papers produced for publication in refereed academic journals In this section we ask you to consider what responsibility, if any, individuals and organisations, should take for secure long term storage of versions of academic papers, at different stages in the revision process. You may select more than one. 10. Authors / Co-authors should take responsibility for secure storage of: (select all that apply) Early draft version(s) before circulation (other than to co-authors) Draft version circulated to colleagues or peers for feedback before submitting to a journal Version submitted to a journal for peer review Final version produced by yourself / co-authors agreed with the journal, following referee comments Version produced by publisher Proof copy Version produced by publisher Final published version (often in PDF format as it appears in the journal itself) None of these 11. Authors' universities / institutions (including libraries) should take responsibility for secure storage of: (select all that apply) Early draft version(s) before circulation (other than to co-authors) Draft version circulated to colleagues or peers for feedback before submitting to a journal Version submitted to a journal for peer review Final version produced by yourself / co-authors agreed with the journal, following referee comments Version produced by publisher Proof copy Version produced by publisher Final published version (often in PDF format as it appears in the journal itself) None of these 12. Publishers should take responsibility for secure storage of: (select all that apply) Early draft version(s) before circulation (other than to co-authors) Draft version circulated to colleagues or peers for feedback before submitting to a journal

7 Version submitted to a journal for peer review Final version produced by yourself / co-authors agreed with the journal, following referee comments Version produced by publisher Proof copy Version produced by publisher Final published version (often in PDF format as it appears in the journal itself) None of these 13. Subject repositories should take responsibility for secure storage of: (select all that apply) Early draft version(s) before circulation (other than to co-authors) Draft version circulated to colleagues or peers for feedback before submitting to a journal Version submitted to a journal for peer review Final version produced by yourself / co-authors agreed with the journal, following referee comments Version produced by publisher Proof copy Version produced by publisher Final published version (often in PDF format as it appears in the journal itself) None of these 14. Do you have anything to add to your answers above about responsibility for secure long term storage of versions of academic papers? (Optional)

8 You as an author - disseminating your work in full text online (Page 4 of 8) Digital repositories In this section we ask you about your use of digital repositories to store and disseminate full text copies of the papers that you intend for publication in refereed academic journals. A digital repository can be defined as an online collection where you can put, store and retrieve digital objects as well as descriptions about the objects. 15. Does your university have a digital repository where you can deposit your papers? Examples of institutional repositories are London School of Economics and Political Science's LSE Research Online or Tilburg University's Academic Output: Yes No If Yes, have you ever placed any papers into the repository? Yes No Don t produce papers If you answered No, can you tell briefly why? (Optional) 16. If your university invites you to place a copy of your paper in the institutional repository and requests from you the final author version, would you provide this version? Final author version means the version produced by yourself / co-authors, as agreed with the journal following referee comments. I am willing to provide this version it helps me to disseminate my research quickly I am willing to provide this version on condition that readers are made aware that it is not the published version I am willing to provide this version on condition that a link to the published version is provided It would take too much time for me to provide this version I consider this version to be inferior to the publisher PDF version I place the publisher PDF version on my Strongly agree Slightly agree Slightly disagree Strongly disagree Don t know Don t produce papers

9 personal website as my first priority, if permitted I am willing to provide an author final version to a fellow researcher if requested by I am concerned that I might lose citations to the published version if I provide my final author version I am unsure whether the publisher copyright agreement permits me to provide this version I intend to provide such versions in the future Other dissemination routes In this section we ask you about other online services you use to disseminate your papers and how this affects your attitudes towards the use of digital repositories. 17. In addition to formal publication in refereed academic journals and dissemination in university / institutional collections, as described above, do you disseminate your own research findings, in full text, through any of the following channels? (select all that apply) Personal website / homepage University website for working paper or discussion paper series REPEC (IDEAS, EconPapers) SSRN Don t produce research outputs Other (please specify): 18. If your university / institution could deposit your research outputs in these alternative channels on your behalf, would this be: (Optional) Very useful Useful A little useful Not useful Don t produce research outputs Accessibility 19. Which of the following versions of your academic papers are you interested in making openly accessible to the general public, if permitted: (select all that apply) [More information: Some publishers do not permit authors to disseminate the published PDF version of articles but do allow the dissemination of final author versions. Other publishers prefer authors to use the

10 final publisher version. The SHERPA/ROMEO list of publisher copyright policies provides further information: Draft version circulated to colleagues or peers for feedback before submitting to a journal Version submitted to a journal for peer review Final version produced by yourself / co-authors agreed with the journal, following referee comments Version produced by publisher Proof copy Version produced by publisher Final published version (often in PDF format as it appears in the journal itself) Don t produce papers 20. Do you have further comments to add about making versions of your academic papers openly accessible? (Optional) 21. Do you feel that you have a full understanding of which version(s) of your academic papers (intended for publication in refereed academic journals) you are allowed to disseminate in full text, in which locations and at which times? (Optional) Full understanding Some understanding Limited understanding No understanding Don t produce research outputs

11 You as a reader (Page 5 of 8) In the following questions we ask you about your experience of searching for academic papers of other researchers in your field. Finding multiple versions of the same academic paper 22. When searching for papers by other authors, how frequently do you find more than one full text version / copy available online? Very frequently Frequently Sometimes Never 23. If you find multiple versions and / or copies of the same work, is it generally quick and easy to establish which one(s) you wish to read? Yes No Do not find multiple versions / copies If No, what difficulties do you face? (select all that apply) Knowing whether there is a published version Knowing if I have found the latest (most recently issued) version Knowing which version is the most authoritative Knowing the difference between the content of one version and another Knowing whether I have found all of the versions / copies that could be available to me Time taken to look at different versions Other (please specify):

12 Citations and persistence (Page 6 of 8) Citing papers that you have found in full text online 24. If you read an earlier version of a paper that has been published in a journal, how would you prefer to cite it? Cite the published version only, even though I have read the earlier version Cite both the published version and the earlier version that I have read Cite the earlier author version that I have read Do not cite any version of the paper if I have not read the published version Do you have any further comments relating to reading and citing pre-publication versions of academic papers? (Optional) Long-term availability of academic papers online (persistence) 25. If you have read or cited a version of a paper online, how important is it to you that the version remains available at the same location? Important Unimportant Very unimportant

13 You as an author or a reader - identifying versions (Page 7 of 8) The questions on this page are all optional. If you have time to complete them this will provide us with valuable information. However, if you need to complete the survey more quickly, please click the Continue button at the bottom of the page now to proceed to two final questions. How useful do you feel that the following methods of identifying versions could be in helping you to organise your own research, and locate the work of others, if they could be implemented? Some of these methods are available already in some digital repositories. Labelling and naming versions 26. A standardised terminology to describe each stage in the process of developing a research output: (Optional) When thinking about preparing a paper for publication in a refereed journal, which words / phrases for stages in the revision process do you or your publisher use? (For example, submitted draft or preprint ). Please briefly list the stages. (Optional) 27. A standardised terminology to describe how one version relates to another (for example B is a digital copy of A, C is a digital revision of A): (Optional) Chronological and numeric labelling 28. A standardised way of recording and displaying the date of manuscript completion: (Optional)

14 29. A standardised way of referring to different revisions by version number: (Optional) 30. A standardised note in the description of the paper stating that it is the latest revision available: (Optional) Describing the content and relationships 31. Notes provided by the author, describing how one version relates to another: (Optional) Linking 32. A method of linking records together so all versions of a given paper are retrieved by searches and presented as a group (collocation): (Optional)

15 Textual comparison 33. A method of comparing the text of different versions and displaying the differences between them: (Optional) Signposting 34. A method of indicating which is the published version: (Optional) 35. A method of indicating which is the author's latest version of a paper: (Optional) 36. Do you have further comments to add about how versions of academic papers could be identified clearly in digital repositories? (Optional)

16 More about you (Page 8 of 8) It will help us to interpret the survey results further if you can answer the following questions More about you 37. How long have you been engaged in research? (Optional) [More information: Please indicate the number of years, beginning from the first year of a PhD degree.] More than 10 years 6 10 years 0 5 years (including PhD research) 38. Which country are you based in for your study / research?